Yamato, lead ship of a class of two 65,000-ton (over 72,800-tons
at full load) battleships, was built at Kure, Japan. She and her sister,
Musashi were by far the largest battleships ever built, even
exceeding in size and gun caliber (though not in weight of broadside) the
U.S. Navy's abortive
Montana class. Their nine 460mm (18.1-inch) main battery guns,
which fired 1460kg (3200 pound) armor piercing shells, were the largest
battleship guns ever to go to sea, and the two ships' scale of armor
protection was also unsurpassed.

Commissioned in December 1941, just over a week after the start of the
Pacific war, Yamato served as flagship of Combined Fleet commander
Isoroku Yamamoto during the critical battles of 1942. During the
following year, she spent most of her time at Truk, as part of a mobile
naval force defending Japan's Centeral Pacific bases. Torpedoed by USS
Skate (SS-305) in December 1943, Yamato was under repair until
April 1944, during which time her anti-aircraft battery was considerably
increased. She then took part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June
and the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October. During the latter action, she was
attacked several times by U.S. Navy aircraft, and fired her big guns in an
engagement with U.S. escort carriers and destroyers off the island of
Samar.

Yamato received comparatively light damage during the Leyte Gulf
battle, and was sent home in November 1944. Fitted with additional
anti-aircraft machine guns, she was based in Japan during the winter of
1944-45. Attacked by U.S. Navy carrier planes in March 1945, during raids
on the Japanese home islands, she was again only lightly damaged. The
following month, she was assigned to take part in the suicidal "Ten-Go"
Operation, a combined air and sea effort to destroy American naval forces
supporting the invasion of Okinawa. On 7 April 1945, while still some 200
miles north of Okinawa, Yamato was attacked by a massive force of
U.S. carrier planes and sunk.

After the war, the great battleship became an object of intense
fascination in Japan, as well as in foreign countries. Yamato's
remains were located and examined in 1985 and again examined, more
precisely, in 1999. She lies in two main parts in some 1000 feet of water.
Her bow portion, severed from the rest of the ship in the vicinity of the
second main battery turret, is upright. The midships and stern section is
upside down nearby, with a large hole in the lower starboard side close to
the after magazines.

This page features, or provides links to, all our images of the
Japanese battleship Yamato.